Price
When the minimum term ends
A minimum term ends on a date. After that, you are usually free to leave without an early-termination charge, and the price you pay can jump to a rolling rate. Ofcom requires providers to tell you this is coming. The letter is not a switch. It is the moment to run the sum.
Reviewed 5 November 2026 · 6 min read · Independent · Not a price list
What the notice is supposed to do
Before the minimum term ends, the provider should send an end-of-contract notice. It should say when the term ends, what you will pay if you do nothing, and the provider’s best available deals. Read it beside the contract you actually signed. If the notice and the contract disagree about the end date, ask them to reconcile the two in writing before you rely on either.
Doing nothing is a choice. It often means a higher rolling price for the same service. That can still be rational for a month if you are mid-move or mid-fault. It is expensive as a habit. Put a reminder on the end date the notice states, not on a date you remember from the original sale.
A best-deal offer from the provider you already use is a retention offer. It may be good. It is not the only product that can be installed at the premises. Check at least whether another network exists at the door before you accept it. A discount that is only available today is still a contract. Run the sum.
Three letters people mix up
An in-contract price-rise letter tells you about a rise during the minimum term. If that rise was set out in pounds and pence when you signed, it is the contract happening. If it was not, you may have a right to leave without penalty. The end-of-contract notice is about the term ending. They can arrive in the same season. They are not the same document.
A notification of a better deal while you are still in contract may come with a new minimum term. Starting that term can remove the freedom the old end date was about to give you. Ask whether the new offer restarts the clock, and what the exit fee would be if you accepted and then left.
One Touch Switch is not a letter from your current provider. It is the process the new provider starts when you order. You do not have to wait for the end-of-contract notice to begin a conversation. You do have to know the exit fee if you leave before the end date. The notice is useful because it pins that date.
After the date
Once the minimum term has ended, an early-termination charge for leaving should not apply, unless a new term has started or the contract says something you have not read. Confirm that on the day. A rolling service can still be billed until the cease or the switch completes. Do not assume the direct debit stops because the term ended.
If you switch after the end date, the new provider still runs One Touch Switch in the ordinary residential case. Do not cancel the old service first. Cancelling first can open a gap. The end of the minimum term removes the fee. It does not remove the need for a coordinated cease.
Equipment return conditions can outlive the term. A router that stays in a drawer can become a charge months later. Ask what they want back when you leave, even if you leave on the end date with no exit fee.
What to calculate on the day the notice arrives
Write the end date. Write the rolling price if you stay and do nothing. Write the retention offer as P, Q, T and U, using the method on our total-cost page. Write any exit fee as zero only if the term will have ended before the switch completes, and you have checked no new term has started. Write any other network at the premises as a separate column.
Do not add a guessed energy saving. Do not add a national average. There is not an honest single figure for what UK households save by switching broadband. Your column is the honest one.
If the notice does not arrive, contact the provider and ask for the end date and the price if you do nothing. Absence of a letter is not proof the term never ends, and it is not proof you can leave for free today.
Questions
- Does the notice switch me?
- No. It informs you. A switch starts when you order with a provider, who then uses One Touch Switch.
- Can I leave with no exit fee on the end date?
- That is the point of the minimum term ending. Confirm no new term has started, and that the cease is actually booked.
- The retention deal is cheaper. Should I take it?
- Run the whole term, not the first month, and check whether a different network can serve the door. Then decide.
- I did not get a notice. What now?
- Ask the provider for the end date and the out-of-contract price. Do not guess either.
- Is a price-rise letter the same thing?
- No. A rise during the term and the end of the term are different events. Read which one the letter is.
- Will you email me when my contract ends?
- Only if you have separately given specific consent for that reminder. A comparison is not consent to marketing.